Friday 27 April 2007

Brown-tail menance

A walk along the cliff top just south of the Lighthouse reminded me just how much the cliffs have eroded. This shows part of cliff where some of the war time defences have disappeared into the sea.


A couple of years ago the coastal footpath was closed after a large cliff fall, now it's been move inland, but the edge of the cliff is still close and there seem to be deep cracks which will

sometime produce further falls. The first Swift that I have seen this year sped north as I looked out to sea.

While I was walking, I noticed the very large number of Brown-tail Moth caterpillar "nests". These are a bit worrying because they have very irritating hairs and can cause skin rashes on anyone who touches them.


In previous years they have almost became plague proportions. The moth itself is totally inoffensive, but it is best to steer clear of the caterpillars.

2 comments:

Squirrel said...

we have something horrid like these--gypsy moths that destroy the host tree--the only thing that eats gypsy moths is the brown field mice called Norwegian Mice--this is what I have read anyway. I remove these with a long stick when I can--

Tony Morris said...

The Gypsy Moth, Lymantria dispar, was "accidentally" introduced into the USA in 1868, near Boston. See
http://www.fs.fed.us/ne/morgantown/4557/gmoth/